Ginni Thomas

Sen. Mike Lee: It’s Morning In America — Even If D.C. Doesn’t Get It

Ginni Thomas Contributor
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Following the Republican base’s charge that their leaders betrayed them by working with the White House and Democrats to prevent an embarrassing vote to defund President Obama’s executive amnesty on a must pass spending bill, Utah Senator and conservative rock star, Mike Lee said, “The American people are frustrated, understandably, with their government. And, I share that frustration.”

Lee says in this exclusive video interview with The Daily Caller, “It’s morning in America. We may not realize it, or better said, Washington, D.C, may be the last place to realize it, but it’s happening.”

Talking about the demoralizing Lame Duck performance of Congress, Lee says, “My message is it’s time for the American people to expect more.”

“Don’t settle,” he says. “Expect Congress to vigorously defend its institutional authority and the constitutional rights of the American people.”

Since his arrival in 2010, Senator Lee has proven himself to be bold, positive and principled, while steeped in a thorough understanding of America’s founding and the U.S. Constitution. In January, he will be honored as the new chairman of the Senate Steering Committee.

But it is clear he has now gotten too effective for the old bulls and special interests.
Although a new poll shows Lee’s popularity among Utah Republicans at 76%, higher than fellow Utah Senator Orrin Hatch’s, Lee is under attack for shaking up the way Washington works and exposing other Republicans as beholden to special interests. Threats are being leveled of running a business-friendly primary opponent against him this cycle, while “hit pieces” are being penned.

Asked about the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence at considerable personal risk and where the fight is for self-government, Lee reminded us: “The fight, in many respects is analogous to what it was at the time of the [American] Revolution.”

Then, “we didn’t have everybody, not even a majority… Right now we don’t have a majority, but I think we are getting to the point where we will have enough. We have to have enough.”

On President Obama avoiding Congress to make laws unilaterally, Lee says “this has changed the way we make laws.” Congress, a voice for citizens, is allowing itself to become irrelevant.

For the midterm elections, Lee traveled to states where bruising primaries resulted in demoralized conservative voters feeling left out. He made the pitch for unity in order to fight the progressive transformation of America, but now he, and other bold conservatives, are feeling pressure from their own feckless leaders. Republican leaders, in search of a new base, appear to be abandoning conservativism while Democrats are increasingly dominated by the hard left.

Asked about the newly exposed architect of Obamacare, Jonathan Gruber, Lee says his words expose how Obamacare was “fraudulently conceived, put forward on an unwilling, unwitting public,” and “moved through a Congress which, although overwhelmingly controlled by the president’s party, was not really aware of what it was processing.”

Lee says Obamacare and Gruber also “reflect something else deeply troubling about the way Washington works. Sometimes those who are pitching legislation that they want to pass will deliberately conceal the facts about that legislation as long as they can.”

Reminded of the 2013 government shutdown he was instrumental in encouraging, Lee sees that early battle as an important marker for Congress relinquishing its constitutional “power of the purse” against an unpopular, harmful law pushed by a stubborn, out-of-control president. “For partisan political reasons,” he says, President Obama shut down the government “instead of compromising, negotiating and abiding by the Constitution.”

Lee has a bold agenda for Republican governance. Soon enough, we will watch if his own party leaders embrace conservative policies that promise results, or choose instead to cooperate with President Obama’s fundamental transformation of America.

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